What is IT Compliance?

Adherence to Laws and Regulations in IT

IT Compliance describes the adherence to laws, standards, guidelines and regulations of companies in the context of information technology. It calls for measures to prevent rule violations, especially in the areas of

• information security,
• information availability,
• data retention and
• data protection.

The goal is compliance with rules and regulations in the area of IT.

IT Compliance Tasks for Companies

In the course of IT Compliance, companies often have to

• define, document, monitor and analyse the processes to be adhered to,
• ensure the availability of information, and
• define internal and external communication rules.

IT Compliance is part of IT Governance, which extends compliance with legal, corporate and contractual rules to management, business processes and controlling.

Scope of IT Compliance

Basically, compliance requirements apply to entire companies as well as to individual organisational units, projects and employees. Some companies use compliance management systems, others employ a compliance officer. Both options are intended to ensure proper compliance with and monitoring of the agreed processes and rules.

Compliance can also be an important topic in project management or software development. Whoever works with processes such as V-Modell XT, who controls projects via a steering committee or who communicates with stakeholders should be aware of the roles, rights and duties involved. Compliance with corresponding regulations and agreements can also be understood as IT Compliance.

The Distinction between Traceability and Revision Security

It is important to distinguish IT Compliance from Traceability and Revision Security. While Traceability refers to the relationships between artefacts in the development process, Revision Security is understood as the traceability of the history of artefacts. Together with IT Compliance, which stands for compliance with processes, standards, laws and norms, all three terms are important, for example, in the development of security-critical software.

Notes:

Here you can find a German video about IT compliance.

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